Blue Drops Season Finale But Gets Outright Title

Denny Kearney. (photo by Sam Rubin '95, Yale Sports Publicity)

Feb 27, 2010

KEARNEY GETS 2 GOALS

HAMDEN, Conn. - The Yale men's hockey team
erased deficits the last three games to earn victories, but the No.
4/5 ranked Bulldogs couldn't make it four against Quinnipiac before
a sold out TD Bank Sports Center on the last night of the regular
season. The Bobcats, trailing 2-1, tallied three straight to take a
4-3 victory and earn a split of the season series.

The Bulldogs, who had their win streak end at seven games, still
had good news despite the loss. Cornell, which could have shared
Yale's regular-season championship with a win over RPI at home
tonight, skated to a 1-1 OT draw with the Engineers. Yale, the No.
1 seed in the conference playoffs, has a week off before hosting a
quarterfinal series on March 11-13. The Bobcats (17-15-2, 11-11-0)
hosts Dartmouth next weekend in the first round of the ECAC
Tournament.

Denny Kearney, with his gold-medal (freestyle mogul) winning
sister, Hannah, back from the Olympics at Vancouver, enjoyed his
second two-goal outing against the Bobcats this season. The other
Yale goal came off the stick of Brendan Mason.

Nick Maricic made 23 saves and stopped two of the three
Quinnipiac power plays. His second period (12 saves) was the
busiest of the night, but he made quality saves in all three frames
on a weekend he played all six periods.

The Bulldogs (19-7-3, 15-5-2) outshot the Bobcats 38-27 but were
just one of five on the man-advantage. Dan Clarke's 35 saves were
enough to hold on for victory, but the Elis put a late scare into
the Quinnipiac netminder.

After a sloppy first half of the opening period for both sides,
the Bulldogs put one past Clarke on a Little to Kearney connection
at 10:12. Little had the puck low in the right circle and hit
Kearney cutting to the goal. The junior forward's initial shot was
saved, but Kearney slapped at the rebound and sent it inside the
near post for his seventh of the year.

Maricic, who made a great kick save on D'Arcy Oakes with 1:51
left in the first, was the victim of a hard-working short-handed
goal to even things with 42 seconds left. Brandon Wong stole the
puck from a Yale player trying to get the puck up the ice with a
man-advantage. Wong saw defenseman Zach Hansen (3rd
goal) coming into the high slot and put it on his stick. The Bobcat
blueliner put it back quickly behind the Eli freshman, the fourth
shorthanded tally for Yale opponents this winter.

The Elis, who had a 14-6 edge in shots, were scoreless on three
advantages in the first but cashed in the initial opportunity of
the middle frame. Kearney got the puck near the dot of the left
circle, held to see what the defender would do and then sent a low
shot through Clarke's legs.

"Hopefully I will start scoring against some other teams,"
Kearney said in reference to having four of his eight goals in
2009-10 against Quinnipiac.

Greg Holt's full-speed cruise behind the Yale net tied the game
at 2-2 midway through the second. He carried over the blueline and
went behind Maricic before wrapping a shot around for his ninth
tally of 2009-10.

The Cats made it two straight with a power-play tally at 13:45
of the second. Eric Lampe carried around the Yale defense on the
left side before sending a crossing pass to Jean-Marc Beaudoin
(11th). The senior winger was busting it to the net on
the opposite side and tapped the pass into the opening.

The home team didn't put sustained pressure on the Yale net, but
there were numerous odd-man rushes that caught the defense off
guard. The third consecutive goal by the home team came after
another Yale penalty. Beaudoin's rebound put-back was too much for
the Eli netminder to stop at 7:03 of the third.

The Elis were unsuccessful on a pair of advantages late in the
third but cut the lead to one with a pretty conversion. Mason
one-timed a beautiful crossing pass from Tom Dignard to make it 4-3
with 4:47 left. The Yale defenseman spotted the junior center in
the left circle and got him the pass quickly.

There were a number of quality chances to even the score over
the last few minutes. Seconds after Maricic went off the ice,
Andrew Miller's shot from the point bounced off the post. That was
the last legitimate chance for the Blue.

The Yale players, despite having secured its second straight
conference regular season title, were expectedly dejected about the
loss. Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of
Hockey, was already talking about the next two weeks.

"It's pretty special," he said. "Coaching kids like we have,
there are some expectations. Still, when it happens, you have to
say wow. The kids in that locker room mean a lot to me."

BULLDOG BITES

Yale fell two places to No. 8 in the USCHO Pair Wise ranking
system after the loss... Senior forward Mark Arcobello broke the
school record for games played with his 126th... The
Yale forward lines stayed the same from Friday to Saturday; The one
change was on defense where Ken Trentowski was in for Nick
Jaskowiak... This is the first time Yale and Quinnipiac have played
a season finale... Hannah Kearney, Denny's sister, was acknowledged
by Quinnipiac with an announcement. She got up, waved and showed
her gold medal during a standing ovation... Tickets are available
for the ECAC Quarterfinals series at Ingalls Rink. Call
203.432.1400 to order tickets now.

Report filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity
Director

Denny Kearney image by Sam Rubin '95

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